Page 5 - NorthAmOil Week 26 2021
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NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
Canada’s Enbridge, which has operations across this is accurate, it could help cut carbon dioxide
North America and is increasingly incorporat- (CO2) emissions from the power sector, which
ing renewables and decarbonisation initiatives has been one of the fastest-growing sources of
into its strategy. demand for gas.
Enbridge is blending up to 2% hydrogen into
its natural gas distribution systems in Ontario, What next?
and has also just received approval to blend Pipeline operators – oil as well as gas – have
hydrogen in Quebec. the advantage of being able to leverage existing
“We are looking to understand the poten- infrastructure and rights of way as they move
tial either with the existing system or, as we’re into hydrogen. However, more work still needs
continuing to modernise the gas pipeline sys- to be carried out – not just in North America
tem, to ensure that new construction is hydro- but globally – to make existing infrastructure
gen-ready,” stated Enbridge’s chief sustainability hydrogen-ready.
officer, Pete Sheffield. On the demand side, the International
In the US, Dominion Energy and Sem- Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that for the
pra Energy are among those that are starting world to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Pipeline
to experiment with hydrogen. This week, a global hydrogen use needs to expand to more
Dominion spokesperson, Aaron Ruby, told than 200mn tonnes in 2030 from less than 90mn operators – oil
Reuters that his company was testing a 5% tonnes in 2020. Given how vocal various coun- as well as
hydrogen blend in a training facility in Utah tries and other players are about their preference
and had also recently proposed a similar for cleaner – and therefore costlier – forms of gas – have the
pilot in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Sempra’s hydrogen, growing hydrogen use to this level
Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) utility is poses a considerable challenge. advantage of
working on pilot programmes to test the fuel Ultimately, the costs of blue and green hydro-
in its pipelines and see how a blend with nat- gen are anticipated to come down, eventually being able to
ural gas affects its pipes, appliances and other becoming cost-competitive with less clean ver- leverage existing
equipment. sions. But there are other challenges involved
The first project would blend hydrogen in too, such as bringing the industry to the point infrastructure
a mostly residential area where SoCalGas can where hydrogen can be burned as a viable fuel
isolate it from the rest of its distribution system, rather than just as a small percentage of a natural and rights of way.
Reuters cited SoCalGas’ chief environmental gas blend.
officer, Jawaad Malik, as saying. Nonetheless, the small steps being taken now
The news service also cited General Electric’s by pipeline operators in North America illus-
emergent technologies director for decarbon- trate the fact that the industry is serious about at
isation, Jeff Goldmeer, as saying that almost least testing the viability of hydrogen in existing
every gas turbine used to produce power can systems. The next steps after this could prove to
burn fuels containing about 5-10% hydrogen. If be more complicated.
Week 26 01•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
